Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Araguato Monkeys Eat It With Avidity; And The
Nation Of The Guaraounos, Whose Whole Existence, It May Be Said, Is
Closely Linked With That Of The Moriche Palm-Tree, Produce From It A
Fermented Liquor, Slightly Acid, And Extremely Refreshing.
This
palm-tree, with its large shining leaves, folded like a fan, preserves
a beautiful verdure at the period of the greatest drought.
The mere
sight of it produces an agreeable sensation of coolness, and when
loaded with scaly fruit, it contrasts singularly with the mournful
aspect of the palma de cobija, the foliage of which is always grey and
covered with dust. The Llaneros believe that the former attracts the
vapours in the air;* (* If the head of the moriche were better
furnished with leaves than it generally is, we might perhaps admit
that the soil round the tree preserves its humidity through the
influence of the shade.) and that for this reason, water is constantly
found at its foot, when dug for to a certain depth. The effect is
confounded with the cause. The moriche grows best in moist places; and
it may rather be said that the water attracts the tree. The natives of
the Orinoco, by analogous reasoning, admit, that the great serpents
contribute to preserve humidity in a province. "You would look in vain
for water-serpents," said an old Indian of Javita to us gravely,
"where there are no marshes; because the water ceases to collect when
you imprudently kill the serpents that attract it."
We suffered greatly from the heat in crossing the Mesa de Calabozo.
The temperature of the air augmented sensibly every time that the wind
began to blow. The air was loaded with dust; and during these gusts
the thermometer rose to 40 or 41 degrees. We went slowly forward, for
it would have been dangerous to leave the mules that carried our
instruments. Our guides advised us to fill our hats with the leaves of
the rhopala, to diminish the action of the solar rays on the hair and
the crown of the head. We found relief from this expedient, which was
particularly agreeable, when we could procure the thick leaves of the
pothos or some other similar plant.
It is impossible to cross these burning plains, without inquiring
whether they have always been in the same state; or whether they have
been stripped of their vegetation by some revolution of nature. The
stratum of mould now found on them is in fact very thin. The natives
believe that the palmares and the chaparales (the little groves of
palm-trees and rhopala) were more frequent and more extensive before
the arrival of the Spaniards. Since the Llanos have been inhabited and
peopled with cattle become wild, the savannah is often set on fire, in
order to ameliorate the pasturage. Groups of scattered trees are
accidentally destroyed with the grasses. The plains were no doubt less
bare in the fifteenth century, than they now are; yet the first
Conquistadores, who came from Coro, described them then as savannahs,
where nothing could be perceived but the sky and the turf, generally
destitute of trees, and difficult to traverse on account of the
reverberation of heat from the soil. Why does not the great forest of
the Orinoco extend to the north, on the left bank of that river? Why
does it not fill that vast space that reaches as far as the Cordillera
of the coast, and which is fertilized by numerous rivers? These
questions are connected with all that relates to the history of our
planet. If, indulging in geological reveries, we suppose that the
steppes of America, and the desert of Sahara, have been stripped of
their vegetation by an irruption of the ocean, or that they formed
originally the bottom of an inland sea, we may conceive that thousands
of years have not sufficed for the trees and shrubs to advance from
the borders of the forests, from the skirts of the plains either naked
or covered with turf, toward the centre, and darken so vast a space
with their shade. It is more difficult to explain the origin of bare
savannahs, encircled by forests, than to recognize the causes that
maintain forests and savannahs within their ancient limits, like
continents and seas.
We found the most cordial hospitality at Calabozo, in the house of the
superintendent of the royal plantations, Don Miguel Cousin. The town,
situated between the banks of the Guarico and the Uritucu, contained
at this period only five thousand inhabitants; but everything denoted
increasing prosperity. The wealth of most of the inhabitants consists
in herds, under the management of farmers, who are called hateros,
from the word hato, which signifies in Spanish a house or farm placed
in the midst of pastures. The scattered population of the Llanos being
accumulated on certain points, principally around towns, Calabozo
reckons already five villages or missions in its environs. It is
computed, that 98,000 head of cattle wander in the pastures nearest to
the town. It is very difficult to form an exact idea of the herds
contained in the Llanos of Caracas, Barcelona, Cumana, and Spanish
Guiana. M. Depons, who lived in the town of Caracas longer than I, and
whose statistical statements are generally accurate, reckons in those
vast plains, from the mouths of the Orinoco to the lake of Maracaybo,
1,200,000 oxen, 180,000 horses, and 90,000 mules. He estimates the
produce of these herds at 5,000,000 francs; adding to the value of the
exportation the price of the hides consumed in the country. There
exist, it is believed, in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, 12,000,000 cows,
and 3,000,000 horses, without comprising in this enumeration the
cattle that have no acknowledged proprietor.
I shall not hazard any general estimates, which from their nature are
too uncertain; but shall only observe that, in the Llanos of Caracas,
the proprietors of the great hatos are entirely ignorant of the number
of the cattle they possess.
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